I'm an author and advisor who focuses on helping those doing good in the world. I call myself a "champion of social good." As a Forbes Contributor I cover social entrepreneurship and impact investing. My books on personal finance and crowdfunding draw on his entrepreneurial finance experience as an investment banker, CFO, treasurer, and mortgage broker in order to help people use financial resources to do good. Previously I worked on the U.S. Senate Banking committee staff and earned an MBA at Cornell.

'Kingonomics' Embody The Spirit of Social Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur, religious leader, and author of Kingonomics, Rodney Sampson has long been a student of Martin Luther King. As a child he memorized King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and was invited to perform the speech at local churches in Atlanta where he grew up. Kingonomics is Sampson’s word for the economic principles (Sampson calls them “currencies”) advocated by King.

These economic and entrepreneurial principles don’t merely represent the economic principles and teachings of MLK, but more importantly, epitomize the spirit of social entrepreneurship in the 21st century.

Sampson recently hosted a conference for current and aspiring entrepreneurs in the Atlanta area and attracted top-flight entrepreneurs from around the country to come and present. (I was honored to be included in the roster of presenters; this provided me an opportunity to learn more about Sampson and his economic principles first hand.)

Kingonomics identifies the following twelve economic and entrepreneurial principles:

Service: More than customer service, Sampson advocates service to mankind, “Many of us are discovering that selfishness, the currency of greed, is not all it was cracked up to be in business school,” he says.

Connectivity: “Dr. King was, above all, a champion of connectivity. By that I mean he was always looking to build community—physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and economically,” Sampson says.

Reciprocity: This principle represents a variation on the “buy local” theme with which we are all familiar. The key is to strategically give back to the communities from which you draw your profits. As an example, Sampson specifically encourages black churches to hire local contractors to build their churches.

Positivity: “We are no longer obsessed with defeating the competition. We aim, instead, to be the best we can be while embracing competition as positive and necessary,” Sampson says.

Personal Responsibility: King, himself, embodied Gandhi’s counsel to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Sampson argues that “followers must lead by the choices they make every day; then the leaders will follow.”

Self-Image: Sampson argues not for vanity, but for the brand of pride that is defined as self-confidence. “Dr. King was a deeply spiritual man who believed that people have deep and abiding worth, no matter whom they are or where they come from,” he says.

Diversity: Sampson, who grew up in an African American community saw his own world expand exponentially when he attended Tulane University. “We must… diversify our decision-making process by purposefully seeking out those who aren’t of our same ethnicity, religion, gender or social backgrounds,” he says.

Character and Dignity: “Character, one’s moral or ethical integrity, is one of our most precious business currencies of all, and we must earn it, spend it, and invest it wisely at every opportunity,” Sampson says.

Rodney Sampson

Dreaming: Sampson, channeling MLK, challenges everyone to dream big with an eye toward changing the world. “We must each write our own internal ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, not only for our businesses but for our lives and the world as well,” he says.

Openness and Transparency: Sampson observes that America’s “old boys club” has, perhaps unintentionally, done great harm to women and minorities who are often excluded from networks that operate behind closed doors. “We must learn to openly acknowledge our differences, with honesty, grace, respect, and even humor, as we continue to explore our commonality,” he says.

Creativity and Innovation: Sampson argues that creativity and innovation are inextricably linked to diversity and openness, that collaboration with others of different backgrounds will lead to better outcomes. “Innovation will be the lynchpin of success in the new Collaborative Era,” he says.

Courage: Interestingly, Sampson equates courage with love, noting, “Every human transaction, at its deepest level, boils down to a choice between fear and love… To act with love is to act with courage. It is to refuse to allow fear to dictate our actions and decisions.”

The book is an inspiring guide to doing business in a sustainable way. I recommend it to anyone interested in doing business better.

One final note: Sampson is a big advocate of crowdfunding. At the conference in Atlanta last weekend, he organized four panels of experts to talk about crowdfunding. Sampson recognizes that crowdfunding represents an open and transparent source of capital that is allowing women and minorities to not only raise money they couldn’t before, but also giving them an entrée into the closed networks of angel investors and venture capitalists.

You may not have heard of Rodney Sampson before, but I predict you’ll hear from him again.

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